Bones to Ashes

In her most riveting thriller yet, Reichs--bestselling author, forensic anthropologist, and producer of the television hit Bones, based on her Temperance Brennan books--pits Brennan against an enigma out of her own past.

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Too long, too many silly red herrings. Reichs writes in such a way that if the reader hasn't figured out the most important of the mysteries (in this case, whatever happened to her childhood friend, Evangeline) long before the end of the book, then the reader has probably fallen asleep. All that's left for the usual Ryan-&-Brennan duo to do is find some of the bad guys. There is always a faux-tense scene near the end when we're supposed to believe the main characters might get killed, but they never do. In this one I found myself wishing Brennan would at least get hurt enough to knock some sense into her about how shallow and pretentious her books are.
For example, in this book, there is a completely needless character, Tempe's sister who, about half-way through the book, surfaces from a shallow and materialistic existence in Texas to rush to Quebec to "help" Tempe figure out the mystery. But, apparently because there's no real reason for her to be in the last quarter of the book, she suddenly drops out of sight. I don't recommend the books about Brennan. Borrow the TV series from the library and watch it instead. It's much better.

I liked this one. I liked how it brought in some interesting things from Tempe's childhood. The only thing that was puzzling was why Tempe could not figure out what caused bone deterioration on an old skeleton. Actually, I guessed it before she did. Things are not going so well in Tempe's love life also grrrr.

theorbys
Aug 23, 2013

Decided to try the books because I like the TV shows so much, so much that I even find their faults endearing. I don't much care for the books, Tempe novel is professionally competent, not in Tempe tv's league. This Tempe is also kind of dumb and, if not sordid, completely banale in her private life. I'll try one more one of these days.

I picked up this novel because I enjoy the tv show Bones that is based on Kathy Reich's novels.

While the characters are not entirely the same, I still enjoyed the forensic aspect of this book, especially since it takes place in Canada, specifically the East Coast and Quebec. It was nice to read references to Canadian landmarks, businesses (Petro Canada) and other familiar Canadian terms.